WOW, help me understand what I'm missing??

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I was talking to Reaper and Luna the other night in an attempt to understand the whole WOW phenomenon. I asked about what the game was like and how you play it. I'm still not sure I'm comfortable with what it's all about.

I'm a long time gamer but have concentrated almost exclusively in flight sims and tactical shooters. I've also dabbled in a few RTS games like Command and Conquer. Honestly this whole RPG thing eludes me. I have this horrific vision of a bunch of people dressed up like elves in somebodies basement with 12 sided dice. Since it's so popular, there has to be something to it, right?

Please help me understand why I should be playing WOW?

“When I discovered a new plant, I sat down beside it for a minute or a day, to make its
acquaintance and hear what it had to tell.” -- John Muir

The whole ""party of three collecting nine coats"" doesn''t actually address some in character things like ""it takes nine coats to build the magic dancing pants"", which I could really care less about.

It also doesn''t address what happens when you stop after getting say two coats, then log back on later and solo for the rest. How many should you have?

Since your party now has only one member (you), you have to have 3 coats. If you have extra coats, you will be left with the remaining ones to dispose of.

It''s a minor thing and most of the quest items drop frequently enough it''s not that big a deal, in my opinion anyway.

The fact that it basically encourages people to solo many quests for themselves with no helping each other is pretty important to me.
Why fire that magic bolt into the Kobold that another party member is killing, if you won''t get the item from it anyway ?

This is really not the definition of a ""party"" when you all just spread around, do your own thing, and complete the quest and visit the quest giver at your own pace.
Not very different from soloing, it is.

b) you can set it to auto-share quests you receive with the rest of the party (the way it should''ve been done)

c) unfortunately, it does not fix the idiocy which makes each party member collect his own items. It would be better if the party of 3 had to collect 9 coats, as opposed to each one collecting 3 coats.
Otherwise, we again end up with some members lagging behind and quest not being ""complete"" simultaneously, as well as no desire to help other party member kill ""their"" target.
Everyone is on their own - which in overall is a really f*cking dumb decision, Blizzard.

What CosmosUI does here, as I understand it shows you the number of quest items the other party members have collected, so at least you know where they''re at.

Thanks. Now that I think about it, I guess I haven''t partied up since installing it... which would explain my lack of familiarity with the party-oriented features. That being said, I already love the Quest Minion just for solo play. Thanks again.

Edit (found this one page 2):

The fact that it basically encourages people to solo many quests for themselves with no helping each other is pretty important to me. Why fire that magic bolt into the Kobold that another party member is killing, if you won''t get the item from it anyway ?

This is really not the definition of a ""party"" when you all just spread around, do your own thing, and complete the quest and visit the quest giver at your own pace. Not very different from soloing, it is.

No, that really isn''t much of a party. Having a party working on a quest, even a gathering quest like you described, still means that you''ll get done faster. If the mob dies faster, you take less damage and can take on the next mob sooner. Coordinated attacks means that you''ll still collectively get those 9 pants sooner than if you each did them independently.

(Disclaimer: that''s just my opinion. I have been known to be wrong on occassion.)

So I know my initial post was kinda of smart-ass, but to add my 2 cents to the argument.

I have been playing MMORPG''s for about 3 years now. Started in DAOC after my buddy spent a year hounding me to play with him. Took a bit of sweet-talking but after a couple of weeks I was hooked. Even managed to suck Chumpy in....

I would argue that a MMORPG has as many skill based elements as any team based FPS I have ever played. They are just different, and slightly less twitch based. I have played with my guild in a group of 8 in DAOC with military precision. Each member playing his role;
Tanks managing aggro( far from easy)
Wizzies managing not to get aggro( even harder)
Paladins twisting chants( and if you have ever gone up against a competent pali chant twister, you''d understand how ""twitched"" a MMORPG player they can be).
and that is not to mention the hybrid classes like a friar, that can act as back up healer, add management, and sub-tank

Bear, you have seen the tip of the iceberg. With only 2 attacks and some mindless ghouls/skeles/rats from level 10 and down, this is not the game that MMORPGs are. The first 10 levels are nothing more than an extended tutorial in WoW.